Walkley Award-winning journalist Marc Fennell (Framed, Stuff the British Stole, Mastermind) returns to the world of Pentecostal religion after running away 17 years ago. In a deeply personal documentary, Marc investigates how Australia produced one of the world’s most successful and scandal-plagued megachurches, Hillsong, and asks, if this kingdom is crumbling, then who will take its place?
Premiering Thursday 8 June on SBS On Demand, and then screening on SBS at 7.30pm Sunday 11 June, feature-length documentary The Kingdom sees Marc step back into the Pentecostal world to uncover the seismic shift driving Hillsong’s decline, and to confront his own raw and complex childhood within the church.
Marc meets current and fellow former believers who expose the human cost of the Pentecostal juggernaut and explores how allegations of bullying, sexual assault and financial mismanagement have eroded Hillsong’s once mighty empire.
He confronts his own past spent in these churches, where he witnessed adults speaking in tongues, falling to the ground and demons being thrown out of people. He explains why he escaped and why he’s remained largely silent about it until now.
“The moment the rest of the world knows that you have this in your past, they don’t pay attention to whether you liked it, hated it or if you left. You get tarred with it,” said Marc. “Many people have had their lives positively transformed by Pentecostalism. But there are also volunteers, staff, victims, and others who have been completely chewed up and spat out by modern megachurches.”
Spanning a wild journey around Australia and into the USA, The Kingdom takes cameras inside the up-and-coming Pentecostal megachurches making the bold move into Hillsong’s home turf and asks: is this the competition for souls it seems to be, and can they succeed where Hillsong has failed its followers?
The Kingdom will be subtitled in two languages, streaming on SBS On Demand in Simplified Chinese and Arabic.
The Kingdom premieres on Thursday 8 June on SBS On Demand and airs at 7.30pm Sunday 11 June on SBS.
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